2017/12/22NEW

On launching the website

Koko Kato, Managing Director
General Incorporated Foundation the National Congress of Industrial Heritage

Introduction

The website “The Truth of Gunkanjima” (www.gunkanjima-truth.com) posts historical documents and oral testimonies that describe the industrial development of Japan, notably of Hashima (in Nagasaki Prefecture) during World War II, and the lives of the people who experienced it first-hand.

I will touch upon the reason behind launching the website later in this writing, but my hope is that the website will respond to the wishes of the people who provided the testimonies that the truth be told, and inaccurate information be corrected. It is important to note that this website is independent of both the Japanese Government and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). The documents posted on the website are collected mainly by the National Congress of Industrial Heritage (hereafter National Congress), with the help of the people. In addition to releasing the original documents in Japanese, we plan to translate them into English and Korean, so that the historical facts can be widely shared across the world.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the many people who have provided help and warm support in launching this website. This website could not have been possible without the dedication of the people who provided the testimonies. They have worked tirelessly to recall the events of the past, and to fill the gaps of history.

“Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution
- Iron & Steel, Shipbuilding and Coal Mining” and Hashima Coal Mine

 “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” is a large-scale World Heritage that encompasses 23 component parts located in eight prefectures, from Iwate in the north to Kagoshima in the south (Iwate, Shizuoka, Yamaguchi, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, and Kagoshima) and 11 cities (Kamaishi, Izunokuni, Hagi, Kitakyushu, Nakama, Omuta, Nagasaki, Saga, Arao, Uki, and Kagoshima). It includes active private industrial facilities such as the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Nagasaki Shipyard and the Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal’s Yawata Works; the Miike Port, a large-scale industrial complex; and Hashima, a well-known deserted island. “Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution” demonstrates in chronological order how a small island nation in the Far East, closed door to Western science and technology for more than two centuries, founded a modern industrial nation in just half a century. It shows, therefore, the significant and rapid progression in Japan’s heavy industries (iron and steel works, shipbuilding, and coal mining), and the half-century of industrialization that changed the essence of the nation and its position on the world stage.

Hashima Coal Mine, one of the component parts of the property is located 3km southwest of Takashima. It extracted coal from the Nishisonogi ocean coalfield. Mitsubishi decided to purchase Hashima after the success of their coal mining business in Takashima, which pioneered the modernization of the coal industry in Japan. As the two coal mines have access to the same coalfield, Hashima’s coal, like Takashima’s, was of good quality and commanded a high price. Hashima began mining in1891, and just 6 years later its coal output surpassed that of Takashima. As coal output increased, the slack or unusable debris of coal, was used for landfill to expand the island. The new land apron surrounding the mass of rock was protected from the high waves by a sea wall that resembled a fortress. At the height of its development, Hashima was the most densely populated coal mining community in the world.

In 1900, Hashima was lit by electricity. The energy revolution introduced the use of electricity to coal mining, which led to the use of electric winders. At Hashima, this enabled safe and efficient mining deep under the sea floor. In time, Hashima became a world-leading ocean colliery. The experience and technology utilized at operating an under-sea colliery in Hashima enabled Mitsubishi to build a foundation for modernizing the coal mining business. The technology was disseminated to other coal mines in Japan, including Miike, and subsequently to a wider Asia. By then, Hashima was popularly referred to as “Gunkanjima”, or Battleship Island, as the shape of the island resembled the Battleship “Tosa”. The coal mine continued to operate after the war and contributed to to post-war economic recovery. However, as oil replaced coal in a subsequent energy revolution, Hashima was forced to close in January 1974. Now an abondoned ruin, the city of Nagasaki manages the island.

Issues at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee session

“Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” was inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany. Although the UNESCO World Heritage Committee approved the inscription of “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution”, it presented eight recommendations within their resolution, Furthermore, the Japanese government, taking note of the statement* presented by the Japanese delegation, decided to prepare an “interpretive strategy”, which includes the decision to display information on requisitioned workers from the Korean Peninsula during World War II - which is outside the relevant period of Outstanding Universal Value recognized for the World Heritage site. Furthermore, the Japanese government submitted a Progress Report on the eight recommendations to the UNESCO World Heritage Centere on November 30th, 2017. World Heritage Centre
(*http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/pr_pd/mcc/page3_001285.html

Why did Hashima become an issue?

Before the World Heritage Committee decided to inscribe Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution as a World Heritage Site, there was fierce opposition from the Korean government and their civic groups. The civic groups distributed large number of booklets such as “A Stolen Country, Abducted People” that showed a picture of Hashima on its cover; pamphlets such as “Wake Up UNESCO, Wake Up World, Wake Up Mankind”; and prolific flyers such as “Can UNESCO Tolerate the Torment of Guilty Conscience?”. Graphic photos were included in these distributed pamphlets. Although evidence and source of information were unacknowledged and unclear the pictures were enough to deceive the world that Hashima was an “island of hell”. Due to this intense publicity campaign, international delegates from around the world naturally turned their attention from “Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” to “industrial labour during World War II”, with a focus on Hashima coal mine.

This developed the sense that the labour of the people from the Korean Peninsula at Hashima coal mine signified the dark side of history. An article that appeared in Suddeutsche Zeitung, dated July 6th 2015, soon after the inscription, shows just that. The paper said: “forced laborers were made to suffer in Hashima, popularly known as Gunkanjima. During the war, people of Japanese descent were moved to safe places and replaced by Chinese and Korean forced laborers”; “more than 1,000 people (Chinese and Korean forced laborers) died on this island”; and that “the bodies of the deceased (Chinese and Korean) forced laborers were thrown into the ocean or abandoned mines”. This article reflects the success of the stunt waged by Korea, as expressed by German media.

The publication of this article became a strong incentive for us to begin collecting and organizing information for this website. It has been two and a half years since we began the search; we have been conducting interviews and investigations to fill the gap in our understanding of the memories of “what was Hashima really like during the war?”. As we collected and organized material, we felt the need to share the valuable historical documents and testimonies with the rest of the world, to invite as many people as possible to consider the “truth of history”. To this end, we consulted with the Directors and Councilors of the National Congress and decided to launch the website.

After our return from Bonn

After we returned from Bonn, I promptly began reading several books written about labour in Hashima during the war. I started with “Chikuho / Gunkanjima”, (written by Eidai Hayashi, Genshobo) and “If you listen carefully to Gunkanjima: - Records of Korean and Chinese forced into labor at Hashima”, (published by the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Zainichi Koreans in Nagasaki, Shakai Hyoron Sha), and “The Atomic Bomb and Koreans” (published by the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Zainichi Koreans in Nagasaki), to understand the origin of the Koreans’ side of the story. The testimonies recorded in these books spoke of the abuse and harsh working conditions that apparently corroborate the claim that “Gunkanjima was an island of hell”, which was circulated at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Bonn. However, they lacked accurate information and were ambiguous on details, such as on the lives of the people, their working conditions, and the specifics of the working facilities.

This is what prompted me to begin collecting as much primary source material as I can. But as I began investigating, I found that primary historical sources were scattered among different locations, much of it lost and no longer complete. Still, I persisted, and made sure to turn each and every page of the documents I collected. I also collected secondary source material. Much of the secondary source material driven by ideological activism, which was written from the perspective of blaming the corporations for the roles that they played during the war. I tried to take a careful look especially at the material that emphasized victimization.

As I collected material, I realized that the memories of everyone who took part in the industry more than 70 years ago, who lived and worked on Hashima, and risked their lives amid the disasters of war to support the war effort of a production boost , were not sufficiently organized. This is the reason I decided to record the testimonies of former residents of Hashima.

Because those who remember the war are now elderly, it took a long time to contact the people who could provide testimonies. A few former residents of Hashima became central figures and introduced us to their friends, who they found through old New Years greeting cards. We tried to get in contact with their former friends, who now lived all across Japan - some lived in nursing homes, some were confined to bed, some were unsure of their memories, and some had already passed away. As they were close to 90 years in age, even if they were initially well enough to participate in interviews, some became sick afterwards. Some enjoyed tracing their memories back 70 years, while others felt it was stressful and a burden.

However, once they opened their hearts, they began talking, from their love of their home town. Those who did not say much in the first interview spoke more in the second, then even more in the third. As we repeated our visits to hear their stories, the weathered and fragmented accounts began to come together, as if putting together a puzzle, and finally, the sights and scenes of the days came back vividly. These conversations led to the inception of the website “Hashima Islanders for Historical Truth”, and the movement to search for the truth about Hashima gradually gathered momentum. It is our wish that anyone who sees this website will be able to further their understanding of the way people lived and worked on Hashima from the testimonies compiled here.

The National Congress, with its limited resources, is still in the process of collecting primary historical information, and plans to publish the information in stages, as they become more organized. Once organized, they will be posted in Japanese, English, and Korean.






 Koko Kato


 Managing Director, National Congress of Industrial Heritage,
 Special Advisor to the Cabinet since July 2015,
 “Coordinator of Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” World Heritage Council,Chair, Industry Project team, Chair, Interpretation Committee of Cabinet Secretariat,Project Leader, Sakubei Yamamoto Collection UNESCO Memory of the World Visiting Professor, University of Tsukuba (April 1 2015-March 31 2016);

 Graduated from Keio University Faculty of Litterature, Tokyo headquarters of CBS News.Harvard Kennedy School with an MCRP in City and Regional Planning (1987-1989), with special focus on corporate towns and their economic development.Since graduating at Harvard Kennedy School, Koko Kato started her own company and became involved in private activities while conducting international research about corporate towns and their industrial heritage. She authored the book titled “Industrial Heritage” (Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, 1999), essays in “Economist” (Japan’s weekly magazine), “Gakuto”,“Shincho 45” and “Chiri” etc. Koko Kato was Director, and one of the principal authors, of the Nomination Document for the inscription of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution on the World Heritage List, and its digest edition. She is also Director of several booklets and the principal Website related to Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution.